Heavenly Instructions.

Carol Purves Carol's Blog

‘Go’, ‘Get up,’ ‘Come, follow me,’ ‘Love.’ ‘Pray.’ Jesus gave many instructions to the crowds and His followers. Those instructions are the same He gives to us today. ‘Go;’ we are instructed to go and tell others about His love and sacrifice. Only a few of us go to other nations and work on what is known as the ‘mission fields.’ But we can all go and tell others, our neighbours, family, office colleagues, and work mates. It is the same instruction today, ‘Go.’

‘Get up.’ As we become older it becomes more difficult. I am not so eager to get up and obey His wishes for my life on any particular day; getting up is less inviting. But we need to get up, there are people who need our help and need to hear the good news.

‘Come follow Me,’ This is costly and out of our comfort zone. Telling others is not easy. Following our Master is not always comfortable or convenient.

‘Do not..’ There are those who think following the Christian life is a series of ‘Do Not’s.’ But every time we hear this instruction it is for our good and to keep us safe. This message could be expanded to ‘Do not because I have something better for you.’

Never Alone

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As a mature English woman I was travelling alone right across Russia with a party of Australians. Talk about being out of my comfort zone! My knowledge of Russian was about three words, the country I was travelling across was beautiful but strange to my Western eyes. The Australians were delightful and friendly, but their lifestyle was so different from mine. My only constant was God, He was with me all the way.

I was reminded of the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 139:10 ‘if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me.’ By reading and meditating on God’s word when I had the opportunity I could appreciate God’s beauty in creation, the majesty of some of Russia’s architecture and the kindness of the Russians. I appreciated the warmth and companionship of my fellow travellers, I recognised God in the eyes of the street children in Vladivostok and the military precision of the Kremlin guards. I was able to prove that God was indeed at the far ends of the earth.

Sometimes it takes being lonely to feel closer to God.

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Not all the Answers

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Sallie had questions. She wanted to believe in God but had so many questions. She thought that when she could find the answers, she could then come to love God. But God doesn’t organise things like that. How can our finite minds understand everything about a finite God? Then Sallie caught covid, she was one of the very ill patients, was hositialized and very nearly died. As she slowly recovered she had time to think and to know that she would never know all the answers to her questions. She decided to just accept and give her life to God. As the saying goes ‘Let Go and let God.’ God was able to work through her illness and her acceptance.

Vivienne married and moved to a remote village where she knew no-one except her new family. There was no way the villagers were going to accept her and only referred to her as David’s (her husband) wife or Stewart’s (her father-in-law) daughter-in-law. He was an important man in the village. Then she was diagnosed with breast cancer. ‘Oh Lord,’ she cried, ‘Aren’t I suffering enough? Then her neighbour who had also suffered from this disease invited her in for a cup of tea. The villagers, previously hostile, began to help her with all the things she couldn’t do. Suddenly she was accepted and became part of the village.

Our God is able to turn round bad things and use them for our and His good.

A Different Day

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I had prayerfully planned my day; I always like to be organised, but I do talk things through with God first. There was some essential shopping to be done, then in the afternoon I planned to visit visit two separate elderly friends who do not get out very much. In between i was going to do 101 other tasks . I need to keep on top of everything.

My shopping was good and for once I had bought everything on the list. After a necessary snack break I was just about to put on my coat to make my first visit, when the door bell rang, I had a visitor. My lovely Christian handicapped friend was visiting me. We had a lovely long uplifting talk but as she was just about to leave, there was another ring of the bell. This was someone who had some business to do with me. We also had a long helpful talk . By the time she left there was no time for visiting. and my 101 jobs had not been done either. What about my God-guided pans?

Why had my plans changed so much? I had felt they were God’s plans in the first place. Why was I visited instead of visiting. It doesn’t matter, The important thing was I had been doing God’s will because I had handed over the day to Him. I didn’t need to know, I only needed to obey.

An Eye for an Eye

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I love the way The Message puts it, ‘An eye for an eye……… That’s not going to get you anywhere. Here’s what I propose, ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ … No more tit-for-tat stuff.’ Matthew 5:38-42. Where is revenge going to get us? Sadly there are countries all round the world who are doing just this – tit-for-tat. The circle needs to be broken. I believe in the past there have been tribes who, intent on revenge have decimated their tribes to near extinction. To get ones own back involves violence, injury and death. The story of Poldark comes to mind.

Maybe we all have a wish to stand up for our rights, but it is not our right to cause trouble to others. Who are we to execute judgment? In Romans 12:19 we read ‘Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord, I will repay.’ Matthew 5 tells us we have been called to be peacemakers . The prayer by St. Francis of Assai says ‘Make me an instrument of Your peace, where there is injury, let my bring peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.’ In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.’ That sounds good

Not many of us have the power help nations who are at war, but when we hear a piece of unkind gossip (nearly all gossip is unkind) we can refuse to repeat it and conversely find something kind to say about that person. We can lobby the politicians, write to the government and fight for injustice against the underdog. Of course, we should not suffer abuse ourselves of any kind but God’s wisdom can protect us. After any interaction with people, they should feel uplifted.

Books, books, books

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Bit by bit during the last few days I’ve been re-arranging my study. As I needed to move two book cases to better accommodate my computer it involved completely emptying the book cases. Then with difficultly I moved the empty pieces of furniture and moved the computer table about twelve inches along the wall. On replacing the books back on their shelves I was amazed how many spiritual books I had. Many were written by people I knew.

I realised that they weren’t doing me any good on the shelves. So I’ve decided to use them to enrich my Christian life. Some are by well-known authors, Tim Chester, Christopher Wright, Peter Maiden, Pete Grieg and many more. Others are by authors who have probably written only one book. Many are study books on various books of the Bible or important topics. Some of those I have read recently and they have aided me in my Christian writing. I thought about the many hours, days and years the authors have spent to produce these books, including the many hours of prayer.

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Empty Rituals

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‘Do you think that all God wants are sacrifices – empty rituals, just for show? He wants you to look to Him! Plain listening is the thing, not lavish religious production.’ 1 Samuel 15:22-23 The Message.

I love the way The message puts things, so clear and in everyday language. But just think about what it says. In the western world we don’t do sacrifices, but often we do things that are just for show. ‘Don’t the church flowers look nice this week. By the way I arranged them,’ , ‘I had a record number of birthday cards this year, I must be popular!.’

By bringing conversations round to ourselves, we are idol worshipping, the idols being ourselves. In a conversation we do not have to be the centre of attention. We should not think of ourself more highly than ourselves. We probably idol worship more often than we think.

Listening

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There is listening or listening. On Sunday my friend was talking about how her husband was in pain. She gave a name to what he was suffering from but because it had a long medical name, I didn’t really listen. When I pray for him now it would be better if I could name what he has before God. I could then google and pray in a more informed way. As I explained the other day to you, as a child I didn’t listen properly and ended up in the wrong blackberry field. I was listening but not listening.

The Israelites were no better. Ezekiel is told in Ezekiel 2:7 ‘You must speak My words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen.’ We have a God who speaks, speaks to us through nature, by His written word and by the message of others and sermons. Our God is not a silent God, He is not an absent God. He say ‘I have spoken.’ It is not God’s speaking that is lacking, but our listening. We have cloth ears. Properly listening involves obedience, that is what we are not always happy about. To obey will involve us changing our ways, doing and saying things that are out of our comfort zone. Change is costly.

‘Everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on the rocks. Matthew 7:24

Silly Little Nothings

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Fortunately we only have a few really important decisions to make in life. – What career to follow, who to marry, where to live, what medical procedures to follow. These decisions are mind-blowing and involve a great amount of prayer and guidance. It is good that these events are limited in number as they can be energy sapping and a matter of sleep deprivation.

The smaller decisions in our lives are numerous and daily. They are ‘silly little nothings’. Almost too small to notice. but they should still fall within God’s guidance. Without guidance, we could say afterwards ‘If only I hadn’t done that’ or ‘If only I hadn’t said that.’ In our hectic lives we don’t always stop and think, ‘Do I walk down this road?’ or ‘Do I buy porridge or fruit?’ But they could have an effect on our lives.Going down that particular road, we could be subject to a mugging (unlikely). Or going to the cereal section instead of the fruit, we might meet a friend and have an important conversation (more likely)

That is where we can listen, as it says in the text ‘Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there, if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. Psalm 139:8 This is where we can trust God to always be with us, He says He will never leave us or forsake us. He will give us a ‘blanket’ guidance. He will be our rock, shield and resting place, whether the decisions are big or small.. He is always there, He will take care of our ‘silly little nothings.’

Questions

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‘Where is God?’, ‘Why doesn’t He intervene?’, ‘Does He really care?’ These are the type of questions we can ask when things are not going well. We have plans and they don’t materialize. We have restricting poor health, we are in with the wrong crowd and heading for trouble. On our own, sin might have put us where we are now.

Whatever the reason for the failure in our lives and plans we can ask these questions. ‘Where is God, does He care?’ It can be helpful to look to the past. Has God ever failed us or let us down. He has been the One to lead us through all the trials and tribulations? Has He ever been known to break a promise? We look at John 16:33 ‘In this world you will have trouble.’ So if we had taken notice of these words, we would have been prepared for things not to go right. Life was not going to be a bed of roses. Read the rest of this verse, ‘But take heart, I have overcome the world.’ So that answers the questions.

The God who sees the whole situation does care. All bad things will pass though it will be in God’s timing and not ours. Finally He says, ‘I go to prepare a place for you.’ John 14:3